Auxiliary air arrangement for diesel locomotives



June 18, 1935. J. DICKSON 7 2,005,536

AUXILIARY AIR ARRANGEMENT FOR DIESEL LOCOMOTIVES Filed March 24, 1935 3 Sheets-shee t 1 WITNESSES: INVENTOR JOHN ID|cKsoN j 7 BY aid/$.78

ATTORN EY J. DICKS'ON June 18, 1935.

AUXILIARY AIR, ARRANGEMENT FOR DIESEL LOCOMOTIVES Filed March 24, 1933 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 NORM mu. QN

INVENTOR JoHN DICKSON WITNESSES:

BY mam ATTORNEY June 18, 1935. J c so 2,005,536

AUXILIARY AIR ARRANGEMENT FOR DIESEL LOCOMOTIVES Filed March 24, 1933 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 WITNESSES: v INVENTOR F3 5 JOHN DncrcsoN 6 1% was/M 7 /2/%2/ ATTORNEY Patented June 18, 1935 UNITED STATES 2,005,536 AUXILIARY AIR ARRANGEMENT FOR DIESEL LOCOMOTIVES.

John Dickson,

Swarthmore; Pat, assignor to Westinghouse Electric 8a Manufacturing Company, East Pittsburgh, Pa a corporation of Pennsylvania Application March 2.4, 19333,. Serial No; 662,588 a claims. (01.17.3 4.98).

My invention relates to Diesel engine applica-- tions where the maintenance of a supply of compressed air is necessary, and it has for an object to modify one or more of the engine cylinders as a supplementary air supply source.

Where a Diesel engine is used for railway propulsion, particularly switching service, time is frequently consumed waiting for the usual air brake compressor to fill the air brake system with air to the required braking pressure. Obviously, the delay on this account depends upon the extent or" air leakage'in car or cars coupled to the locomotive and the number of cars coupled. It is customary for the engine operator,

after coupling the car' or cars to the engine, to wait for restoration of air pressure if the latter has been substantially lowered incident tocoupling of the car or cars and the condition of air pressure thereof. In accordance with my invention, I reduce time consumed in this way by providing for one or more of the Diesel engine cylinders, acting as air compressor means to supplement the compressor means of' the conventional air br .ze system, this result being possible due to the availability of the particular prime mover, a Diesel engine, for compressor operation, i r, with this particular type of prime mover, pure air'is drawn in on suction strokes and may be compressed and discharged to a suitable point by interrupting the fuel injection means and by providing special air discharge means. More particularly, I provide the compressor acting engine cylinder with a third valve serving, when opened, to afford communication between such cylinder and an air storage receptacle and, when closed, to-interrupt such communication. Meansis also provided for interrupting the supply of fuel. to the compressor acting cylinder. Qperating mechanism is arranged so that the third valve of the compressor acting cylinder may be opened and the fuel injection supply means thereto may be interrupted. when such cylinder is. operated as a compressor to serve as a supplementary source of air for the air brakesystem. A further object, therefore, is toprovide apparatus having these features ofadvantageous construction and operation.

These and other objects are effected by my invention as will be apparent'f-rom the following description and cl'aimstaken in accordance withthe accompanying, drawings, forming a part of this application, in which:

Fig. 1' is a side elevation of a Diesel engine driven locomotive having my improvement ap-- plied thereto;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the engine showing my improvement more in detail;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of apparatus shown in Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a sectional View of the head of a. comprcssor-actin' engine cylinder showing the third valve and taken along the line IV--IV of Fig. 6

Fig; 5 is a sectional view taken along the line V--V of Fig. 6

- Fig. 6 is a plan view of a head with the cover removed; and,

Fig. '7 is a detail sectional view taken along the line VIL-VII' of Fig. 2 and showing the means for rendering fuelinjection toa compressor acting cylinder ineffective.

Referring now tothe drawings more in detail, 1 show, at It, a multiple cylinder Diesel engine mounted ona frame or car chassis H to: provide a locomotiveindicated generally at t2", the locomotive being arranged for coupling te one or more cars [3 in the usual way.

The locomotive I 2 and the cars l3 are, of course, provided with the usual air brake system, such system commonly-including a motorcperated air pump or compressor l4 arranged onthe locomotive and supplying air to the air storage reservoir or receptacle l5. As already pointed out, when a locomotive is coupled to" one or more cars, the air pressure will be reduced depending upon the number of cars coupled and the extent of pressure existing in the air brake apparatus of the respective cars at the timeof coupling. Obviously, if there is ncpressure in the air brake apparatus of a caror it there has been substantial leakage of therefrom, then, upon coupling, the pressure ofair of the air brake system will be lowered and, if the pressure of the system is lowered below the normal operating point, the operator or driver must wait until the motoroperat'e'd compressor M- can restore the pressure to the normal point. This restoration of air pressure may require several minutes and delays of "as muchas ahalf-hour on this account a'renot unusual. Accordingly, therefore, I provide: for one or more cylinders oi the engine It to operate as an air'compressor to supple-- ment the motor-operated compressor l4 whenevernecessary and the apparatus providing for this dual operation of one or more of the cylinders will now be described.

The engine I 0 includes a plurality of cylinders it, for example, six, and each cylinder has a head ll provided with admission and exhaust valves IB and. 19; As shown on the drawings, the threecylindersat the left of Fig. 2 are shown as modified for compressor operation, it being understood, of course, thata less number of cylinders may be so modified; the only requirement being that enough unmodified cylindersshall remain to secure good engine operation with the modified cylinders acting as air compressors. The heads of the compressor acting cylinders are each provided with a third valve 2!! of the poppet type and opening inwardly, the valve being normally closed due to the force of a spring 2|. The valve 20 interrupts or affords communication with a passage 22 formed partly in a head I! and partly in a conduit 23 leading to the manifold 23a connected to the receiver l5. Each of the conduits 23 is provided with a non-return valve 24 preventing the back-flow of air from the receiver to an engine cylinder when the third valve 2|! is opened, whereby it is assured that the pressure of air of the compressor-acting cylinder or cylinders must preponderate over the receiver pressure before air can be supplied from the engine cylinder or cylinders to the receiver.

The third valves 20 may be opened in any suitable manner. By way of example, I show mechanism for opening these valves including a cam 26 operating bell cranks 2'! for depressing the valves 20 to open the latter. Preferably, the operating mechanism for opening the valves includes energy storage means to overcome the spring 2| and to open the valve 20 at a time when the resistance to opening of the latter is a minimum, this making it possible to operate the cam 26 to compressor-acting position With subsequent opening of a valve 2|! if at the instant the particular engine cylinder should be under compression. To this end, I show a spring device 28 arranged in the mechanism between the cam 26 and the valve 20 and which, being stronger than the spring 2|, is eifective to store energy if, at the instant of operation of the cam 26, a valve 20 cannot then be readily opened due to pressure conditions existing in the cylinder. When the cylinder pressure is reduced, then the excess force of the spring device 23 over the spring 2| is efiective to open the valve 20. p

The engine it is provided with fuel injection apparatus of a well-known type indicated generally, fuel injection pump for each of the cylinders and the pumps being connected to the latter by conduits 3| terminating in fuel injectors 32 provided in the heads IT. The engine cylinders arranged for compressor operation have. their fuel injection pumps modified so that they may be rendered ineifective when compressor operation of the cylinders takes place. To this end, I show the three fuel injection pumps 33 connected to the compressor acting cylinders having by-pass valves 34 arranged in the heads thereof, these valves being normally closed by springs-35 and normally opened by a, cam 36 cooperating with the stems 3! thereof. The cam 36 maybe turned to open the valve against the force of the springs 35.

Common operating mechanism is arranged to secure simultaneous opening of the third Valves of the compressor acting cylinders and to interrupt the supply of fuel to such cylinders; To this end, I show the cams 26 and 36 connected to a manual control device 38, the latter device being shown, for example, as a hand wheel which operates a shaft 39 connected by gearing to the cams 2% and 36. It is to be, understood that any suitable mechanism may be em- 1 ployed for opening the third valves and for rendering the fuel injection devices of the compressor acting cylinders ineffective and that any at 30, such apparatus including a,

suitable means may be employed for securing simultaneous opening of the third valves and interruption of the fuel injection devices. If desired, the heat of compression in air delivered from the compressor acting cylinders to the receiver l may be removed by a suitable heat exchanger 40 which preferably transfers heat to circulating water.

While I have shown my invention in but one form, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that it is not so limited, but is susceptible of various changes and modifications without departing from the spirit thereof, and I desire, therefore, that only such limitations shall be placed thereupon as are imposed by the prior art or as are specifically set forth in the appended claims.

What I claim is:

l. The combination with a multiple cylinder Diesel engine provided with means for injecting fuel into the cylinders and a receptacle normally containing air under gine cylinders having an air admission and exhaust valves, of means for utilizing at least one of the engine cylinders and its air admission valve as a compressor to supply air on compression strokes to said receptacle including a passage connected to the receptacle, a check valve in said passage preventing back-flow of air to the engine, a third valve for the compressor-acting engine cylinder which, when opened, affords communication between the cylinder and the passage and, when closed, interrupts such communication, means for rendering the fuel injection means ineffective to inject fuel into the compressor-acting cylinder, and controlling mechanism for opening said third valve and for operating the last-named means to interrupt the supplyof fuel to the compressor-acting cylinder and vice versa.

2. The combination as claimed in claim 1 wherein the third valve is provided with a spring for maintaining it closed when the compressoracting cylinder is operated as an engine cylinder.

3. The combination with a multiple cylinder Diesel engine and an air receptacle normally supplied by a motor compressor unit, each of the engine cylinders having a head provided with a fuel injector and having an air admission and exhaust valves, and means for individually supplying fuel to the fuel injectors; of

means for utilizing at least one of the engine cylinders and its air admission valve as a compressor to provide a supplementary source of air supply for said receptacle including a passage formed partly in the head of such cylinder and connecting the latter to the receptacle, 9. non-return valve in the, passage preventing back-flow from the receptacle to the engine, a third valve provided in the head of the compressor-acting cylinder and serving, when opened, to aiford communication between the cylinder and the passage and, when closed, to interrupt such communication, means for ren-- dering the fuel supply means ineifective to supply fuel to the compressor-acting cylinder, and

controlling mechanism for simultaneously opening said third valve and for operating the lastnamed means to interrupt the supply of fuel to the compressor-acting engine cylinder when the latter is operated as a compressor.

JOHN DICKSON. 

